Los Angeles Angels pitcher Garrett Richards, left, leaves the field with a trainer after being relieved during the fifth inning of the team’s baseball game against the Oakland Athletics in Oakland, Calif., Wednesday, April 5, 2017. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

ANAHEIM>> Garrett Richards’ growing misfortune has turned into an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for teammate J.C. Ramirez. More than that, Ramirez said, starting a game for the first time as a major leaguer Friday is “like a dream come true.”

The Angels might call on Ramirez more than once.

Richards, who strained his right biceps in his first start of the season April 5, was expected to have started playing catch by now. Not only hasn’t Richards picked up a baseball since the injury, Angels manager Mike Scioscia said there is no set time frame for that to happen.

Richards is eligible be activated from the 10-day disabled list Sunday, but that ship has sailed. The right-hander won’t travel with the Angels on their seven-game trip through Kansas City and Houston and figures to miss at least two starts.

“The best-case scenario is that J.C. pitches really well Friday, we win a game and give him the ball five days later,” Scioscia said.

Ramirez has pitched 111 games out of the bullpen in a career that’s taken him through Philadelphia, Arizona, Seattle, Cincinnati and now Anaheim. He was 1-3 with a 6.40 earned-run average in 27 appearances when the Reds placed him on waivers last June.

The Angels, who were fifth in the waiver priority line at the time, scooped up Ramirez and sent him to their bullpen. He fell behind in the count a little less and used his slider a little more. In 43 games as an Angel, Ramirez went 2-1 with a 2.91 ERA.

“I got more of a chance, got more confidence,” he said. “That’s why I’m a better pitcher now.”

By the end of the season, the Angels were convinced Ramirez could be more than a one-inning set-up man. On the final day of the 2016 season, Scioscia told him not to play winter baseball in the Caribbean. Ramirez would be going into spring training as a candidate for the starting rotation.

A starting pitcher in the minors from 2006-11, Ramirez said he’d abandoned the dream of starting years ago.

“When they told me last year that they’re going to try to be a starter in spring training, I was surprised,” he said. “I still had some question marks in my mind about it. But when I threw a lot of innings in spring training, I thought ‘yeah, I can do that. I just need to get used to it.’ I got about facing the lineup the second time, I think was the hard part. Just make that adjustment.”

Tragic Parallel

The Royals began the season 2-6 entering Thursday night’s game against the Oakland A’s. The team is still mourning the loss of starting pitcher Yordano Ventura, who was killed in a car crash in the Dominican Republic in January. He was 25.

Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart was 22 when he died as a result of injuries sustained in a car crash in April 2009. A previously scheduled home game the following day was postponed, and the Angels won just three of their next nine games.

Scioscia said it’s still difficult for him to reflect on the tragedy and its effect on Adenhart’s family.

“It took a lot of time,” Scioscia said. “That group of guys was a special team in ’09. They embraced Nick’s family, they embraced honoring Nick in a lot of different ways — bringing his jersey with us on the road, going out when we clinched, going out to where his number is on the wall and took a team picture.

“It wasn’t a topic of conversation. Everyone kind of dealt with pain in their own way. Occasionally his name would come up, they would ask about the family and we would talk. … We were able to get in the ALCS that year, but not without a lot of heartache.”

Injury updates

Infielder Luis Valbuena and pitcher Andrew Bailey will remain in Anaheim when the team flies to Kansas City.

Valbuena, on the DL with a strained right hamstring, has been running, hitting and taking ground balls this week. Valbuena still has room for progress running the bases before he can be activated, Scioscia said.

Bailey is on the 10-day disabled list after experiencing aches and weakness in his shoulder Sunday. The veteran right-hander said an MRI on his right shoulder Wednesday confirmed the diagnosis of inflammation.

Bailey didn’t receive a cortisone shot, but said that “a couple days” of rest and anti-inflammatory medication ought to be enough to reduce his inflammation.

“It’s definitely scary,” said Bailey, who missed the entire 2014 season recovering from shoulder surgery, “but I knew it wasn’t so serious.”

Pitcher Nick Tropeano, on the 60-day disabled list as he recovers from Tommy John surgery, said he’s playing catch from up to 70 feet.

Jeff Fletcher has covered the Angels since 2013. Before that, he spent 11 years covering the Giants and A's and working as a national baseball writer. Jeff is a Hall of Fame voter. In 2015, he was elected chairman of the Los Angeles chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America.

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